new items can be created from there doing “S-M RET” (before, or after depending on whether cursor was at the beginning or end of item)

doing “C-c C-c” you can toggle check marck on/off

with “C-x-b” toggle checkbox at point, which according to the online manual works like the following:

If there is an active region, toggle the first checkbox in the region and set all remaining boxes to the same status as the first. If you want to toggle all boxes in the region independently, use a prefix argument.

If the cursor is in a headline, toggle checkboxes in the region between this headline and the next (so not the entire subtree).

Heh heh… I have long had org-mode working though my use of it is fairly simple. The problem I was having turned out to be me being way to clever for myself. I was trying to put *’s at the beginning of the checkbox line. As a result C-c C-c wouldn’t work at all. Take the *’s away and it all works.